Has the White House decided the democratically elected Iraqi governemnt has failed? According to this op-ed article from Iran's tightly-controlled Tehran Times, the Bush Adminstration has decided to engineer a return to Sunni-Baathist control, against the will of Iraqi majority Shiites - and more importantly, Iran's Shiites.

Scenes (above and below) from today's bombing attacks in the Sadr City
neighborhood of Baghdad. The carefully executed series of bombings killed
at least 160 people and wounded at least 257. It is the most deadly such
attack since the war began, Nov. 23. (above),

The corpses of some of today's Sadr City bombing victims at a Baghdad morgue, Nov. 23. (above).

An injured woman holds the arm of her wounded son in a hospital after the Sadr City bomb attacks. (below).

Iraqi women and children in their Sadr City home, which was raided by
U.S. and Iraqi forces earlier in the day, before the wave of bombings. The newswire photo caption merely says that they
are 'reacting' to the raid. (above).

The
terrorist bombings that killed more than 220 residents of Baghdad's Sadr City
on Thursday have caused great concern among Iranians. The bloodshed comes at a
time when U.S. forces are responsible for maintaining security in important
areas of Iraq's cities.

The
increasing insecurity and the focus of the terrorist attacks on Shiites show
that there's an organized conspiracy against the Iraqi majority. Vice President
Dick Cheney's secret visit to Baghdad and former secretary of state James A.
Baker, who is currently the chairman of the Iraq Study Group, are both part of
the conspiracy.

As these
developments were unfolding, it was announced that Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi
foreign minister and close aide of Saddam Hussein, would soon be released from
prison.

In fact,
these events are all part of a new American plot to topple Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki's elected government and hand control of the country to Baathist
elements.

After 43
months of occupation, American plans in Iraq have hit a brick wall. U.S.
officials believe that the root of their failure is that Shiites are struggling
to regain their rights through democratic elections. But the Americans are
under the mistaken belief that Iraq's minority [Sunnis] can best guarantee U.S.
interests because they enjoy the support of some Arab states [also Sunnis].

Accustomed
to military coups as the key method of transferring power, this [Sunni]
minority, which held a tight grip on power for over eight decades, refused to
grant the majority a major role in society.

Under the
influence of certain regional powers [Israel and the Gulf Arab states], at this
stage the U.S. has concluded that this minority can help Washington implement
its New Middle East Initiative.

This
theory appears quite illogical In light of global events over the past decade, since
if the minority comes to power in Iraq, international terrorism would likely
intensify. September 11 and the terrorist attacks in London and Madrid prove
that if they acquire a secure base, Arab terrorists with false religious
interpretations having nothing to do with true Islam can threaten global
security.

A
Baathist return to power could provide just such a base for the very terrorists
responsible for the bloodbath in Iraq.

Iraq's
new government has been established through free elections. Helping the Maliki government
suppress Arab terrorists and uproot terrorism in the country is the only way
out of the current crisis.

The
United States has no alternative but to hand control over Iraqi security to the
Iraqi government and gradually withdraw its troops from the country. The era of
military coups, like those that occurred in the 1960s and 70s is over.

If the
U.S. intends to bring the Baathists back to power, not only Iraq but the entire
region will witness a new crisis, the repercussions of which will be felt in the
region and around the world.